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Being a small startup with a team spread across South East Asia and people constantly on the go, the guys at Advocado are preachers of productivity, simplicity, efficieny – and friction free tools that makes it flow smoothly for them and their clients. I asked Jane at Advocado about the way they work and how appear.in helps streamlining their workflows.

Jane can also tell me they've made it possible to design and deploy engaging loyalty programs in under 20 minutes. Being a marketer, I think this sounds like a nifty app every store I go to needs to start using. And I mean, IMAGINE getting rid of all the loyalty cards you carry around in your wallet and never use? *Mind blown!*

What is it like working at Advocado?

– "It's highest gear everyday at Advocado, be it in the office or on-the-go",

Jane says while gesticulating jumble with a smile on her face. She continues;

– “You have to be a fighter to work here. That being the outreach, administrative, business development, client success, or marketing strategies team. And not to mention our amazing tech warriors led by CTO, Ron Lee! Being an 18 month old start up, we are pretty much very accustomed to changes day in & day out. There's not a day of dullness at Advocado."

Jane gives a lot of credit to Founder & CEO Eric Chia and Co-Founder Joval Gan that have made sure the young and vibrant company culture is highly treasured.

– "They are both fantastic coaches and make us feel at home. Most of us used to work for MNCs, but we chose Advocado because of the amazing culture, freedom and feeling of being a family within the team."

Just like at appear.in, the «Advocators» call cafes, co-working spaces, hotels and even pool sides their office. Jane tells me video collaboration has been crucial since the early days of Advocado.

– "Since we have teams based around the entire SEA region, video has been the initial communicative tool used since the very beginning. As Advocado grew, our CEO Eric decided that the tools we used were too much of a hassle, and that the instability caused more inconvenience than assistance. That's when he introduced us to appear.in"

Since then, the Advocado team has gone appear.in PRO and keep collaborating and talking to clients from around the office, town and even across country boarders. Jane continues;

– "appear.in was the light at the end of the tunnel! And because of the accessibility of appear.in, we've managed to streamline our operational procedures. For instance, we're reducing time wastage by not having to on-board brands and businesses to complicated corporate video solutions. appear.in just works for everybody in one click!".

Why is video collaboration important for you and your team?

– "First of all, it's important for the success of our clients! Merchants are not always that tech-savvy, and therefore it's more efficient to avoid making them download new software. With appear.in «appear.in/new-to-advocado» would take our client directly to the video meeting room immediately. AND WE LOVE IT! This was overly complicated and unsuccessful when previously using other video tools."

Jane also shares that they have started on-boarding new brands and merchants via private webinars utilizing appear.in. In addition to client success, appear.in is being used internally between the team-members.

– "Even though our teams are always on the go and business team span across the SEA regions, weekly meeting & ad-hoc meetings need to happen. And they happen on appear.in if we're not in the same location."

What's your number one tip to increase productivity when working as an "on the go team"?

– "Team Advocado does a huddle everyday for 5 minutes, every department and then the management staff would all huddle after the respective team huddles. Did that make sense?"

It makes perfect sense to me and I'm very inspired after talking to Jane about how they do things at Advocado! Check out their video below and make sure to try their software if you're a retailer or business owner in the SEA region.

A bit more about Advocado

Advocado started off only May 2016, and in 12 months, they acquired more than 300+ paying merchants & brands from all sorts of industries on their platform (in Singapore). Today they have more than 100,000 end consumers. Advocado is growing at a fast rate aiming to have presence in 8 cities and empowered more than 1,000 brands in the next quarter.